The Hindu : Sport : An eventful day sees India wrest control

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An eventful day sees India wrest control

S. Ram Mahesh

On a stewing-hot second day, 297 runs were scored and 15 wickets felled

Perth: On a stewing-hot second day, the third Test burst into flames. In conditions that were scarcely hospitable, let alone suited for enervating activity, India, through a show of skill and vitality, wrestled Australia to the mat.

Virender Sehwag batted insouciantly in India’s second innings as an incredible day’s cricket drew to a close. By Thursday evening, India led by 170 — a position of leverage brought about by its bowlers, who did outstandingly well to dismiss Australia for 212 in 50 overs.

It was a day that saw 297 runs and 15 wickets. First, Australia bowled India out for 330, ransacking the final four wickets in 17 balls. Then, the touring side struck back with lefty swing from Irfan Pathan and R.P. Singh, and bounce and cut from Ishant Sharma, as Australia crumpled to 61 for five. Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist counter-attacked, each filling the other’s blanks, to put on 102 — a large portion of which came at seven an over.

Just as it seemed the script of Sydney would be reprised, Anil Kumble had Symonds caught at slip for his 600th Test wicket. R.P. Singh scythed through the lower-order, M.S. Dhoni finished with five victims, and the parched sea-gulls were the only Australians making any noise.

It was all a bit much to keep up with — but deucedly good fun.

Thursday began with Dhoni and Pathan trying to stretch India’s first innings to 350. Pathan hit Brett Lee down the ground, and whipped and cut Mitchell Johnson, looking far more assured than late on Wednesday evening when he had barely kept a bouncer from his teeth. Dhoni stayed away from Lee’s hooped out-swingers, but stooped and thumped Johnson through cover.

Clark strikes

It took the introduction of Stuart Clark to alter the tone: in 50 minutes, Dhoni and Pathan had furthered India’s score from 297 (for six) overnight to 328, but the tall fast-medium bowler immediately sowed doubt. In his first over, Clark had Pathan playing and missing; on the fourth ball, he rapped Dhoni’s pad and won the appeal, although the wicketkeeper-batsman had propped forward. The WACA’s surplus bounce almost always negates the validity of such shouts, but it was just the opening Australia needed.

Johnson slipped a low full-toss past Pathan’s bat and got one to kick at R.P. Singh for a catch to gully. In between, Clark persuaded Kumble to slice to point.

Australia’s openers, Phil Jaques and Chris Rogers, rushed to the dressing room, while Johnson sauntered off, looking almost embarrassed with career-best figures of four for 86.

The flags hung limp forty minutes before lunch, but both R.P. Singh and Pathan swung the new ball, keeping a length that provoked the drive. The latter extracted both left-handed openers in his second over — with a touch of fortune in the Rogers leg-before decision (the ball might have slid down leg), but fine bowling to have Jaques forcing his hands at one that shaped out.

Michael Hussey fell without scoring, edging a curling out-swinger for Dhoni to glove it behind his head. But, the batsman had been done in earlier. Sourav Ganguly, of all people, dived to prevent Hussey getting off strike, leaving the left-hander ripe, so to speak, for the picking. R.P. Singh didn’t need the invitation.

Ishant Sharma gladdened the heart after lunch, nailing Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke with deliveries entirely deserving of their scalps. Ponting was bullied into stabbing a lifter to third slip — the world’s best batsman dictated to by a reed-thin 19-year-old. Clarke was pinned on the crease by excellent length. Ishant, at 6ft 6in and growing, isn’t easy to come forward to, not even for a man with Clarke’s footwork. As with Ponting, the ball hinted away off the seam.

Counter-attack

Symonds, dropped by a hopping Sachin Tendulkar at first slip off Pathan when on three, powered to his half-century in 44 balls. Though the dread-locked strongman flipped Kumble to mid-wicket and smote the Indian captain into the tenth row of the Lillee-Marsh stand (besides dabbing and driving the seamers), he wasn’t entirely convincing. Kumble’s bouncing leg-break ended Symonds’s stay — and, one suspects, Tendulkar’s guilt.

Gilchrist, who had eased Symonds’s burden with a typically loose, vicious innings, was felled by rip-snorter from R.P. Singh. Having been hit for three consecutive fours, the left-armer cramped Gilchrist by shortening his length and raising towering bounce. The wicket was emblematic of India’s resilience and spirit on a defining day.

SCOREBOARD

India - 1st innings: W. Jaffer c Gilchrist b Lee 16, V. Sehwag c Gilchrist b Johnson 29, R. Dravid c Ponting b Symonds 93, S. Tendulkar lbw b Lee 71, S. Ganguly c Hussey b Johnson 9, V.V.S. Laxman c Tait b Lee 27, M.S. Dhoni lbw b Clark 19, I. Pathan lbw b Johnson 28, A. Kumble c Rogers b Clark 1, R.P. Singh c Hussey b Johnson 0, I. Sharma (not out) 0, Extras (lb-19, nb-9, w-9) 37; Total (in 98.2 overs) 330.

Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Sehwag), 2-59 (Jaffer), 3-198 (Tendulkar), 4-214 (Ganguly), 5-278 (Dravid), 6-284 (Laxman), 7-328 (Dhoni), 8-330 (Pathan), 9-330 (Kumble).

Australia bowling: Lee 24-5-71-3, Johnson 28.2-7-86-4, Clark 17-4-45-2, Tait 13-1-59-0, Symonds 10-1-36-1, Clarke 6-1-14-0.

Australia - 1st innings: P. Jaques c Laxman b Pathan 8, C. Rogers lbw b Pathan 4, R. Ponting c Dravid b Ishant 20, M. Hussey c Dhoni b R.P. Singh 0, M. Clarke c Dhoni b Ishant 23, A. Symonds c Dravid b Kumble 66, A. Gilchrist c Dhoni b R.P. Singh 55, B. Lee c Dhoni b R.P. Singh 11, M. Johnson (not out) 6, S. Clark c Dhoni b R.P. Singh 0, S. Tait c & b Kumble 8, Extras (b-4, lb-1, nb-2, w-4) 11; Total (in 50 overs) 212.

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Rogers), 2-13 (Jaques), 3-14 (Hussey), 4-43 (Ponting), 5-61 (Clarke), 6-163 (Symonds), 7-192 (Gilchrist), 8-195 (Lee), 9-195 (Clark).

India bowling: R.P. Singh 14-2-68-4, Pathan 17-2-63-2, Ishant 7-0-34-2, Kumble 12-1-42-2.

India - 2nd innings: W. Jaffer c Hussey b Clark 11, V. Sehwag (batting) 29, I. Pathan (batting) 2, Extras (lb-2, nb-6, w-2) 10; Total (for one wicket in 11 overs) 52.

Fall of wicket: 1-45 (Jaffer).

Australia bowling: Lee 4-1-14-0, Johnson 2-0-14-0, Clark 3-1-7-1, Tait 2-0-15-0.

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